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© Appl. Rheol. 22 (2012) 348 –350

The 6th International Symposium on Food Rheologyand Structure (ISFRS 2012)

Zurich, SwitzerlandApril 10 – 13, 2012

The sixth edition of the International Symposium on Food Rhe-ology and Structure took place at ETH Zurich during April 10 – 13,2012. During three and a half days, four plenary lectures, sixkeynote lectures, 90 oral talks and 110 posters were presented.One of the conference’s goals is to provide the participants anoverview of the state of the art in food rheology, food morphol-ogy, and food processing. In recent years the area is enrich withnutritional aspects and how food is digested. The later aspectsare becoming more and more important since food science hasto address worldwide problems in malnutrition (deficiencies),weight management problems (obesity or anorexia), and chang-ing nutritional patterns. It is of course not the task of a rheolo-gist to directly tackle nutritional problems but humans’ evalua-tion of food properties, e.g. healthy food versus non-healthyfood, is tremendously influenced by the food’s texture and rhe-ology. So food structures with e.g. tailored breakdown, lubrica-tion between tongue and palate, swallowing behavior – proper-ties, which can be measured by rheology – are considered a con-tribution to nutritional aspects. Of course, rheological propertiesare not only of importance while eating and digestion but alsoduring food processing and manufacturing where the structurewe will later associated with good and tasty food is generated.Besides reflecting recent developments and trends in food sci-ence, ISFRS also aims to expose the food rheologist to newresearch areas and new techniques that can be of importance totheir research.

This is an extract of the complete reprint-pdf, available at the Applied Rheology websitehttp://www.appliedrheology.org

This is an extract of the complete reprint-pdf, available at the Applied Rheology websitehttp://www.appliedrheology.org

Within this framework the first day of themeeting saw a grant opening lecture by RobertPrud’homme speaking on “Polysaccharide bio -polymers: Lessons from nature on tuning mole-cular interaction”. Two parallel sessions on Emul-sions and Foams and on Rheological Methodscompleted the morning program. Highlightswere the structuring of oils and interfacial rheol-ogy as well as online rheometry and advancedanalytical methods (FT-Rheology, DLS). Twokeynote lectures on “The effect of rheology onthe dispensing of complex fluids” by ChristianClasen and “The fluid mechanics of mastication,swallowing and digestion” by Jan Engmannstarted the afternoon session, which were devot-ed to Semi-Solid foods with focus on proteinstructures in cheese and bread and RheologicalModelling & Numerical Methods.

The second day started with a plenary lec-ture on “Mucus microstructure and barrier prop-erties” delivered by Justin Hanes from The JohnHopkins University in Baltimore/USA. The topic,more known in the medical community, linksdirectly into recent food-related discussions ondigestion and food uptake in the intestine. Ses-sions on Biopolymer Solutions and Gels and Col-

loidal Systems followed the plenary talk andfocused on protein fiber systems, acid gelation,and diffusion in complex structures. After thelunch break, Raffaele Mezzenga reported on“Bridging length scales and properties in foodprotein fibrils’, while Hans Tromp opened theRheo-SALS, SANS, SAXS session with his contri-bution entitled “Neutron scattering on foodingredients”. This session was dominated byscat tering method development and structuralinvestigation on ice crème and protein adsorp-tion layers. The third main ingredient of ISFRS,the half-day poster session in conjunction withthe exhibition of scientific equipment took placeduring the entire afternoon and was, beside sci-entific interest, fueled by beer and brezles withPeter Bigler being the barman.

The third day started with Gareth McKinley’splenary lecture “Rheological fingerprinting ofcomplex fluids and soft solids” focusing on largeamplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) and its de -tailed analysis; techniques also recognized andutilized in food rheology. After the plenary lec-ture the largest session of the entire conference,Influence of Processing on Structure & Rheologywith 22 oral contributions started in parallel with

349Applied RheologyVolume 22 · Issue 6

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Figure 1 – 4 (page 348 above):A few snapshots during thediscussions.

Figure 5 (page 348 below):Main lecturing theater.

Figure 6– 9 (below):Poster session, exhibition,and relaxation.

This is an extract of the complete reprint-pdf, available at the Applied Rheology websitehttp://www.appliedrheology.org

This is an extract of the complete reprint-pdf, available at the Applied Rheology websitehttp://www.appliedrheology.org

350 Applied RheologyVolume 22 · Issue 6

ConferenceReport II

the Encapsulation session. Main focus of the ses-sion, which continued in the afternoon and onFriday morning was on processing of cheese,heat-induced food structuring, membrane tech-nology, fibers for food structuring, and advancedmilling techniques and dough rheology. In theencapsulation session, the properties proteinand biopolymer capsules and well as manufac-turing techniques were discussed. The keynotelectures starting the afternoon sessions weredelivery by Anne-Marie Hermansson re portingon “Structure design of soft biomaterials” and bySerafim Bakalis focusing on “Model eating”. Thelater contribution also opened the Sessions onMacromolecular Assemblies and Structure, Nu -tri tion and Health focusing on the relationshipbetween food structure, perception, and diges-tion. Friday morning saw the plenary lecture byErich Windhab on “Rheology and functionalstructure processing in a reverse gastrointestinalengineering approach for personalized food”and the continuation of the Influence of Pro-cessing on Structure & Rheology session beforethe conference was closed at around midday.

ISFRS 2012 attached more than 320 partici-pants from academia and industry and was spon-sored by Anton Paar, Emmi, Felchlin, Jowa, Lindt& Sprüngli, Nestlé, TA Instruments, and Ther-moFisher. Scientific equipment was presented byAnton Paar, Brookfield, Chopin, Fritsch, Kine-matica, LUM, Malvern, Perten, Stable Micro Sys-tems, TA Instruments, and ThermoFisher.

The Book of Abstracts (ISFRS 2012) as well asall proceeding contributions of the previous con-ferences (ISFRS 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2006) areavailable for free at www.isfrs.ethz.ch.

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Figure 10:Conference banquet.

This is an extract of the complete reprint-pdf, available at the Applied Rheology websitehttp://www.appliedrheology.org

This is an extract of the complete reprint-pdf, available at the Applied Rheology websitehttp://www.appliedrheology.org